A total charmer of a naive ship drawing, drawn in graphite by H. Smith of Lawrence, MA, "in the evening" of November 30, 1854 on pale blue wove paper. With Ben Franklin lettered across the side of the hull, and more B.F.s everywhere, I believe the drawing represents the first USS Franklin (there were more to follow), built in 1815, the first vessel to be laid down at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and razed, in 1852, in Portsmouth, NH-- which would make this drawing a posthumous tribute. (Parts from the ship were used in the construction of her successor, the second USS Franklin, launched in 1864.) Of course what I care about are the delights of the drawing itself, especially all those sailors, looking like precariously perched acrobats up there, with a few of them giving us a wave. With a nice big raised anchor on chain and cheerful garland (of seaweed?) running the length of the ship-- and a verse on reverse reminding us that mirth is the medicine of life! Great.
8 1/8" x 6 1/8", graphite on faintly lined pale blue paper, with an embossed stamp at lower left. Good condition, inviting close looking but completely readable and clear.
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